£100 for joining Alliance + Leicester

JimmyTheWig

Andy_Hamilton wrote: »

I rang A&L today to increase my new overdraft (stoozing) when I rang they said, " can I take your account number" Yep!
"can I take the number on your debit card"
"no as I am just in the process of opening the account"
"sorry but you have failed the security"

Bang your head on a wall time but they were able to answer my question without going through security.

Can't wait to get £100 + stoozing interst and also hope Abbey takes over as Abbey is more local.

I just tried to increase overdraft online.
Got to a page that said...

To help us process your request quickly, please check that you are able to satisfy the following:

• Am a UK resident aged 18 or over
• Have had an Alliance & Leicester account for a minimum of 4 months
• Hold a Visa Debit card
• Regularly fund the account

Can satisfy 3 of these 4, but not the second.
Will put a note in my calendar for 4 months time...

Meanwhile, got £1500 stoozed from what they've already given me.

suzyoz

Hi all,

I've scanned the last 6 pages of this thread so sorry if someones already said this or if the matters' been cleared up.... I know i've been concerned about and hidden costs or missing fees etc in the T's & C's, and by the sound of it, so have many others...

I just thought i'd let people know i phoned up Alliance and Leicester today to ask, well, what the catch is! They said, and I quote "You can close the account at any time," and "There are no monthly fees for this type of account,".

:T

So, feel free to ring up as I did to confirm it for yourself (0500 95 95 95), but that put my mind at ease enough to apply there and then.

As I haven't heard particularly good things about A&L, I'll be sure to close the account at their first mistake!

Hope this might help others,




Oh! Sorry! The only "catch" is
1. That you have to pay £500 a month in to the account from any source and it doesn't have to be all in one go,
2. Whilst applying you select the option "Use Premier Switching Service" which is free and means all your standing orders and DDs are moved to your new account by A&L
3. Over 21

Word of warning, if you're thinking of staying with them longer or you might forget about cancelling the account just beware that they have a different overdraft interest charge from other banks, it may work to your advantage, it may not...

arturo_aquaboy

Does anyone know when you actually get the £100?

Three_Dancing_Dragons

I have given up on my nightmarish attempt to open the Alliance & Leicester premier current account and obtain the £100 bonus and 0% matched overdraft for a year.

First catch was that they added extra conditions before they would match my Natwest overdraft as promised - besides depositing £500 a month, there have to be THREE deposits in the account each month AND your previous account has to have been in credit at least three days in the most recent month (funny that neither of those conditions are mentioned in the online information you get when applying). In fact they also asked for a letter from my previous bank to confirm that I had never exceeded the agreed limit. My first statement didn't cover the three days in credit so I took an entire morning out to go to the bank and get a letter from my manager together with a new statement for the calendar month. To make sure it went through ASAP I hand delivered it to my local A&L branch so they could fax it through to the switching department and then post on the hard copy. It then took me a fortnight of calling at least two departments every other day to discover that neither fax nor letter ever arrived (somewhere between the customer service desk and branch managers office my documents seem to have evaporated) and I'm now expected to go back to my bank for a new letter & statement and do all the running around because of Alliance & Leicester incompetence.

On top of this I waited for over three weeks for their "Premier Switching Service" to actually switch my direct debits and was twice told "Oh your own bank hasn't acknowledged our query so can you bring in a list of your direct debits yourself?". I politely pointed out that this was THEIR job and told them to try again. Third time lucky apparently and the list of direct debits was generated today.

In total I've probably spent upwards of six hours on the phone to call centres and the better part of a month trying to get Alliance & Leicester to honour their online offers. The phone service is inefficient and there seems to be no-one to actually advise in branch - there are even phones to put you through to the enquiries call centre ON THE WALL IN THE BRANCH! Actually collaring a member of staff doesn't seem to be the A&L way - guess it is supposed to save money.

Today I reached the limit of my patience and cancelled the switching service entirely. My direct debits and pay will be redirected back to my Natwest account where I've always had quick and helpful service from real people. I will not receive the £100 bonus, nor will I get the 0% interest free overdraft matched to my previous limit but it does mean I can close the account and never have to deal with this lazy and incompetent organisation ever again.

One to avoid at all costs. :mad:

Anon

... anyone else had delays in it tracking through Quidco? Nearly a week and not appeared yet.

Many thanks

Anon

vernall

Anon wrote: »

... anyone else had delays in it tracking through Quidco? Nearly a week and not appeared yet.

Many thanks

Anon

i was starting to worry about this too,i did mine on the 5th and it only showed as tracked this morning........it DID say it will track in 0-10 days with 2 as the average....took the full 10 for me:j .....it now says will track in 0-14 days with an average of 7

get_me_debt_free

Mine has not tracked yet either, I have enquired about it and I am waiting!!

Tristanod

I've just read an article on the fact that Santander might be buying A&L. I recently swithced to A&L to make use do the initially interest free overdraft, followed by the £5 a month charge. They've given me on O/D limit of £5k, which will be nice for paying off a credit card when its 0% balance transfer expires soon.

My question is, if somebody buys A&L, will the be able to change the terms of current accounts and get rid of these advantageous O/D deals, or will they have to keep honouring the current set up?

JimmyTheWig

Tristanod wrote: »

They've given me on O/D limit of £5k

£5k limit? Nice. More than I got!

My question is, if somebody buys A&L, will the be able to change the terms of current accounts and get rid of these advantageous O/D deals, or will they have to keep honouring the current set up?

I would imagine that they are perfectly entitled to change the terms. In fact I would have thought that A&L themselves would be entitled to change this.
I would like to think, though, that they would have to honour the 12 months interest free bit.

Remember that you haven't had to pay a fee to get this 0% money, unlike you would if it was a credit card 0% deal. So even if it only lasts the 12 months then you've got yourself a great deal.

Tristanod

ah !!!!!!. well, let's just hope Santander decide to keep the 50p per day up to £5 a month interest rate. fingers crossed!